Monday, September 23, 2013

More than six decades have flown by in a
blink. We have Elections 2014 in our backyard. And so far, at least, I have not
really noticed any narrative for the women of India. Isn’t that sort of dim ?
Night after night, the nation watches mainly men thundering away on assorted
panel discussions that deal with political issues of every hue. The expressions
on their faces are suitably grim ( I miss Manish Tewari’s supercilious smirk )
as they dissect what went wrong in Muzaffarnagar ( come on, chaps, we all KNOW
what happened there! But do any of you
know how to fix it?). The economy and its ding dong condition ( “Oooooh! Sensex
close to a 3-year high. Thanks Uncle Sam!”) is tediously analysed on biz
channels, often by chirpy young things wearing startling shades of lipstick. Then there are the heavy duty
interview/ issue based programmes anchored by our tv star presenters ( male and
female). Since their thrust is to generate fiery exchanges via an aggressive,
confrontational approach ( I long for the full on attack mode of the original – Karan Thapar at his fiestiest),
the topics are picked accordingly. Right now, one cannot escape Narendra Modi.
And here’s the interesting bit: he is the only neta to be actively courting the
female vote. Ever since my spoof on Raghu, the RBI Guv appeared in ET, and got everybody’s knickers into a right
royal twist (that was amusing!), I have been inundated with requests from other
publications to ‘do a Raghu on Modi.” No chance! I was informed Modi had won a
recent poll conducted with middle- aged house wives who had declared him their
ultimate heart throb. Good for the house wives and good for Modi. Count me out
of this one.

To his credit, Modi has been overtly courting
the female constituency in his own State and launched several initiatives which,
on paper at least, sound positive, pro-active and most crucially – possible.
His ‘Mission Mangalam’( launched in 2010) and the ‘Sakhi Mandals’ are designed
to create livelihoods for a million women over the next five years.
Understanding the cultural dynamics of
Gujarat, these self- help groups are transforming lives, albeit slowly.
When Modi addresses rallies, at least a few of his bombastic utterances sound
female- inclusive and in sync with women’s expectations. The rest of the
political big wigs behave like women don’t exist ( except as rape victims), and
nearly all their reference points are stubbornly male. Amazingly enough, the three , four or five
heavy weight Devis in the political sphere have breezily ignored issues that
concern India’s female population. They go into strident mode only when a tragic Nirbhaya case or a spate of horrific
gang rapes galvanize the country. One rarely hears Sushama Swaraj, Sonia
Gandhi, Jayalalitha, Mayawati or Mamata Banerjee, invest any real time or
thought on women specific concerns. This is not just short sighted of them, but
also rather dumb. One doesn’t really expect or even want special concessions,
but it is a reflection of the indifference of the ruling class that not a
single leader has bothered to make women’s welfare a key issue so far.

The female rupee has already impacted the
economy in a significant way. If our money counts, shouldn’t our minds? While
emotive subjects like curtailing violence against women have been taken up by a
few political parties( no matter how clumsily), the lives of women in a wider
perspective remain side lined and ignored. This is really where Rahul Gandhi
comes in. Forget the poor fellow’s Kalawati episode (yes, I know that’s hard!).
Forget his more recent roti-for-every-Indian speech (the Baba meant well, and
at least he didn’t promise pizzas to poverty stricken villagers ). It’s an
interesting head-to-head contest between two bachelors now. How they woo and
court the ladies may turn out to be the biggest differential in the months
ahead. Both should look at hiring teams that are tuned into the specific needs
of today’s woman – rural and urban. The guy who’ll walk away with the female
vote will be the one who doesn’t talk down to us. Word is out that both the
bachelor boys are working on pumping up their sex appeal - getting more in touch with their feminine
selves. Which is fine, I suppose. But the thing is, we aren’t looking to bed
them. We want them to work for us. Huge difference!

Monday, September 16, 2013

I am writing this just a few hours after
the critical verdict ( Nirbhaya case). And asking myself in a somewhat cynical
way – does it matter? Even if the rapists / butchers are given the death
penalty, will the rapes end? I think we are deluding ourselves by pinning all
our hopes on one very critical judgement. And we have fooled ourselves into
believing the mindset in India will alter dramatically after Nirbhaya’s killers
are given the severest punishment. This is simply not going to happen. And
here’s why : Rapists in India are as varied as our culture itself. They come in
all shapes, colours and sizes . There is no standardized profile of a rapist.
The urban rapist is no different from the rural rapist. A man in a well cut
suit is as much of a rapist as that petty criminal clad in rags. A husband can
also be a rapist. So can a brother, father, grand-father, uncle, cousin and son
– no class barriers here. Rape takes place within the four walls of a home, at
the work place, inside a hotel room…. or on the street, in a moving bus, at an
abandoned mill. The rapist can be a colleague in a swanky corner office, or the
shabbily dressed watchman of the
building. Often, the rapist is a person the woman knows and trusts. With her
life. She is still not spared.

Rapists rarely stop to think about the
punishment that awaits them once the nasty business is over and done with. Most
rely on the woman’s silence to protect them from the law. A victim’s silence is
the rapist’s best insurance against getting nailed. And here we are talking about reported cases.
There are millions of unreported rapes which feature repeat offenders. Do those
men ever imagine they’ll be exposed some day? Nope. They are super confident
it’s the woman who will fear exposure far more and keep mum forever. So, even
if our laws are changed overnight, the crimes against women will continue
unabated. Because it is our society that is guilty, not just the individual
rapist. What can be done about that collective guilt? Where does one begin? At
home, is the general opinion. Worth a go, if we can forget the alarming
statistics involving domestic rape. Can we? Should we?

The other theory talks of shame. Especially
the shame society imposes on the victim. Social workers tell us to free women
of the stigma of shame. Others insist on the survivor’s identity being made
public. We urge women to look the world in the eye and carry on with their
lives sans shame. But, for starters, how does one explain the meaning of ‘shame’ to a three- year- old little girl
whose tiny body has been ripped apart by a brute? What do we say to that 15-
year- old villager whose ‘virginity’ is sold to a 70-year-old widower? How does
the concept of lifting the veil of shame
enter the picture when the woman has been gang raped in public?

The truth is, we are all struggling to find
solutions to this scourge, when there aren’t too many. Rape is one of the
original sins, as ancient as the other seven. Rape goes hand in hand with a
sense of entitlement and power. Rape is about violence, not sex. And the men who
commit it, are often convinced they are well within their rights to go ahead
and violate women. Educated, elite men commit rape as casually as street goondas.
So, it’s clearly not about the college degrees you possess or the cars you
drive. It is not about an enlightened upbringing, either. Some of India’s most
‘cultured’ families have shielded rapists and damned the survivors. To talk
about raising baby boys with the ‘right values’ has become an annoying
television cliché. I cannot believe any family actually ‘endorses’ or
encourages rape. It’s a daunting scenario, no matter which way we look at it.
And please let’s not talk about chemically castrating rapists stoning them in public, or adopting any other
medieval form of justice. If crimes
against women have gone up dramatically, it is because of a set of altered social
circumstances that we are still not comfortable with. The elephant in the room
has a name and identity. The creature can best be called an ‘empowered woman’.
Today, most women are empowered in their own unique way. Even the impoverished,
illiterate ones. They know who they are. And what they want. The day rapists
realize they can rape a woman’s body but not her mind, heart and soul, perhaps
the futility of their vicious acts will finally sink home. And our bodies will
be spared. This is more my prayer than a real hope. Is the Almighty listening?

Saturday, September 14, 2013

So, the four will hang. When? Where? Don’t
ask. The only thing we know right now is that the Judge, Yogesh Khanna, took
under ten minutes to announce what India had anticipated. The second he
finished reading out the short judgement, spontaneous applause broke out inside
and outside the court. Frankly, I was a little sickened by that. The ghastly
rape and murder of an innocent young woman was horrific enough. Then came the
applause. I have to add here that I am opposed to capital punishment. Having
made my position clear, let me explain why the public’s reaction distressed me.
It was a grim case to begin with. For nine long months we had hungrily fed on
gory details about the crime – which of the men did what, who did it first, why
was a metal rod involved, what did the rapists actually do with it, did her
male companion watch all this, how come the juvenile rapist turned out to be
the most sadistic, did Nirbhaya, a paramedic, lose consciousness at some point, for how many
hours were the two victims lying stark naked on the road after being flung out
of the bus…. and some even more
intrusive queries that cannot be printed in a family paper. Were we genuinely
concerned about their pain … or acting plain voyeuristic? The girl was dead.
Did it matter how precisely she had been sexually assaulted? Is our society
really that sick? We refused to spare the memory of a woman who’d suffered what
no human being ( man or woman) ever should. We just blabbed on and on….
demanding a death sentence…baying for the
blood of Nirbhaya’s killers. Hooting and howling like crazed beasts
ourselves.

Tomorrow, we’ll demand these men are hanged
in public. We will talk idiotically about ‘closure’ ( as if there can ever be
closure in such circumstances).We will speak airily about the death sentence
sending out a strong signal that will deter other men from committing such a
heinous crime in future. Even as I key this in, just a few short minutes after
the judgement, there must be an equally ‘heinous’ rape taking place in some
part of India – perhaps in your own backyard.What has changed? If and when Nirbhaya’s rapists swing, do we
really want to participate in the actual hanging, even as bystanders? Come on,
which country are we living in? And in which century? Next we’ll start stoning
criminals to death at Flora Fountain, and attempt to justify the barbarism on
the grounds that public stoning discourages crimes. That is absolute rubbish!
Even in countries that accept this medieval style of delivering ‘justice’, the crime rates are
comparable to the rest of the world’s.

To call Nirbhaya’s rape, the ‘rarest of the
rare’ is in itself misleading. Every rape is just as terrible. In this case,
Nirbhaya succumbed to her serious injuries. Survivors (male and female) will
tell you, they die a little every day they are alive after being violated.
Nobody ever ‘gets over’ rape. There can be no real closure. Judge Yogesh Khanna must have faced a tremendous amount of
public pressure, no matter how impartial and objective he tried to be.
He is human, after all.If every future rape judgement is going to be measured
against this one, we are asking for trouble. It raises a very disturbing issue
in a larger context. As it is, the judiciary seems to be in charge of India
(just as well). If the judiciary starts taking its cues from public sentiment
and emotional issues, we too will start
behaving like we are in a banana republic – let the mobs decide! This is
dangerous in the extreme.

Four men will go the gallows soon. So be
it. One juvenile from their gang will walk free a few years from now. So be it,
too. And the violence against women will not abate. I certainly won’t say ‘so
be it’ to that! The fight must go on. But in a more meaningful way. Let’s
revisit dated laws and demand change. Constitutionally. And quickly.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Navratri is round the corner, and there
must be feverish activity in Modi-land. But I wonder how locals will celebrate these
nine days of feasting and festivity given the somber mood in Gujarat right now?
Is anybody ready for Dandiyaa Raas ? Or will the dhols be silent this year? And
will the dhoklas remain uneaten? There are far too many party poopers pouring
cold water on planned celebrations. And one wonders: has the time for divine
justice, finally arrived? Events of last week have confirmed what ought to have
been evident years ago . But now that
Gujarat’s disgraced cop and encounterwalla, D.G. Vanzara is singing like
a canary (popat?) from his prison, there is no place to hide. Provided we are
interested in paying attention to the jailed cop’s explosive accusations. The
timing of his candid revelations is undoubtedly suspect, according to critics.
Who cares? In this case, content is king. And truth is more important than
lousy timing. Is the suspended IPS officer (DIG) lying or not? That should be
our sole concern. The Modi show has been steadily gathering momentum and Modi’s
rocket speed rise to the top has happened (“Modi is so dynamic… he is the only
person who can pull our country out of the mess… look at what he has done in
Gujarat… he is so organized…he means business…. even the foreign press is
saying so”). But, as the Gujaratis themselves say when all else fails, “ Javaa
do….” In other words, “ Let it go…” Moral issues, be damned. They would like to
bury Godhra and carry on like nothing major happened in 2002. Is the rest of
India ready to forgive, forget and move on?
Young voters are in a total flap : No Modi. No Rahul. Then, who?

Well, the dice is loaded against Modi right
now. The final straw was the arrest of a perverted ‘Godman’ called Asaram Bapu.
With Vanzara connecting the dots as only a cop can, and clumping Modi with the
depraved Guru (“Why didn’t Modi save Asaram?”), we now have a tricky situation
to deal with. Heaven knows how many more dirty secrets will emerge from this
scandal, but one thing is clear – Modi’s band baaja baraat moment is
temporarily on hold. Shrewdly, Modi has been quick to announce his decision to
serve Gujarat till 2017! No suicides reported so far! Vanzara has cooled his
heels for seven long years in jail ( along with 32 other cops), charged with
extra judicial killings (read : staged encounters). These seven years , he
claims, were spent in cleaning up his soul, thanks to the spiritual guidance
given by his Guru ( Asaram). Vanzara has suddenly woken up to the startling
discovery that his ‘God’ ( Modi) has feet of clay. With his strongly worded 10
page letter spelling out his disillusionment with Modi and Modi’s henchman Amit
Shah ( BJP campaign head in Uttar Pradesh), Vanzara has drawn attention to the
netas’ complicity in the encounter killings. He accuses Modi and his men of
more or less ordering loyal cops to go forth and murder (“ we simply
implemented the conscious policy of this government.”). But Vanzara himself
expresses zero regret for what he did ( if he had moral issues, he could have
resigned and exposed Modi back then). Modi and Shah will no doubt pooh pooh
Vanzara’s letter. They will probably declare him insane and recommend
psychiatric treatment. If the Congress also decides it isn’t worth its while to
invest in Vanzara, he will rot in jail ,
and soon, everybody will forget about his existence. Disowned and discarded by
his political bosses, this self-styled ‘desh bhakt’ will become another minor
irritant, a pesky mosquito, easily swatted by his mighty opponents. He himself
may become the victim of a mysterious encounter in prison. And that will be the
end of the story.

For a police officer to be in such a sorry
position is indeed a shame. But for that same man to admit he has been Asaram’s
ardent disciple for years, is a bigger disgrace. The Godman’s dirty trail in
India has not changed over the decades ( remember our desi Rasputin, Dhirendra
Swami, and his absolute hold over Indira Gandhi?). Today, there are several
Asarams running the God business like an industry. Their track records are
pretty similar. There’s no business like God business in this part of the
world. And if one digs a little deeper, nearly all the top ‘Gurus’ plying this
trade have criminal records. But such is our pathetic surrender to humbug , we
refuse to take action against their known criminal activities.Why? Because all
of them have powerful political patrons. It’s a convenient arrangement. And
there is one hell of a lot of money involved. Money that is rarely accounted
for, much less audited. Those ‘ashrams’ ( super luxurious palaces) are
protected by private armies that keep outsiders at bay. It is inside these very ashrams that
unspeakable crimes are committed. Yet, nobody dares to move against these fake
Gurus. Insulated and protected, these villains in robes continue to cheat the
gullible . Asaram’s case could be the turning point in India’s fight against
so-called Holy Men and Women. Most start
their lives as petty thieves, small time conmen, serial molesters, till they
move up the ladder by preying on powerful people in search of spiritual salvation. Vanzara was one such believer/
sucker, who was convinced he’d be saved by Asaram …and Modi. Vanzara killed in
the name of religion. That’s his ‘alibi’. He also killed because he was
instructed to do so by his political mentors. Today, Vanzara has been deserted
by both - the netas he did it for, and the Godman he
believed in. It’s all over for Vanzara. There are many more villains like the
jailed cop. But there is only one Narendra Modi. What do we do with him?

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Monday, September 9, 2013

The movie’s title is sexy and provocative
(“ Shuddh Desi Romance”). The teaser
promos were promising, too. The print ads flashed all sorts of authentic sounding statistics ( “73% Indian
men believe that women who smoke are characterless…”). Now to watch the film
and see how right/ wrong they’ve got it. Often, the premise is perfect,but the
pulse isn’t. Phut! That’s the end of the story. I caught a couple of tv
interviews with the young stars, and smiled indulgently at their enthusiastic ,
breathless responses to the standard dumb questions. “The romance in this film
is totally real!” declared a newbie…. Right! Of course, it is honey. And I wondered
what exactly she meant by ‘real’?
Romance in today’s zamaana …. and real? The film’s makers claimed to have
arrived at these startling statistics after conducting surveys across 40 cities
in India. Let’s take their word for it. Assuming they really did take the
trouble to quiz thousands of youngsters ( no numbers mentioned), are we
surprised by the findings? I certainly wasn’t. The concept of romance these
days is a lot like contemporary politics – it’s all about numbers, equations,
setting, jugaad, manipulation, popularity, approval ratings, “Likes” on FB,
canvassing, switching camps, offering incentives, false promises, rivalry, back
stabbing, name calling. There is nothing ‘shuddh’ about either – romance or
politics. Sigh….

I conducted my own personal research, and
the findings of my small survey echoed the sentiments of the movie’s promoters.
Scary but true. Here’s another gem : “80% Indians feel couples who live
together are ‘loose characters’.” Bang on. There was another one about Indian
guy’s and their attitude to virginity ( they all want to marry one). Bang on,
again ( pardon the lousy pun).This is of a piece. And in a way, all the rough
stuff we are living through in our metros is directly linked to these findings.
Our cultural conditioning is so strong,blinding and binding, we can see these
‘eternal truths’ in motion every single day and in every which way. I am an
incorrigible eavesdropper. I love over hearing comments in public spaces like
airports and stations, where clumps of strangers kill time together,watch television
in a desultory fashion and pass idle comments on whatever the channels are showing
– be it mythologicals, news, soaps, reality shows, panel discussions. If I
close my eyes and just focus on these
conversations, it could well be my grand mother or great uncle holding forth.
Yup. The antiquated views expressed don’t seem to have moved an inch beyond the
last century. Which is why despite all the posturing and condemnation, honour
killings are accepted if not directly condoned by a vast majority of urban
Indians. A ladki’s izzat and honour remain tied to how “shuddh” she is. Or how
‘shuddh’ society thinks she is ( like
she is a tin of ghee). If she also projects ‘desi’ vibes, she is home and dry.
Young men in our society do not have to conform to any such standards. Though
being ‘Shuddh’ in terms of showing respect to elders, is considered a male
virtue. Being desi for guys means wearing kurtas to family functions and
dancing to Bollywood hits at a friend’s sangeet. For women, ‘shuddh’ also
includes being a strict vegetarian, and not ‘taking’. As you must know, when an
aunt looks suspiciously at you and demands, “Do you ‘take’?” she means just one
thing : “are you a drunken slut who smokes, eats meat and sleeps around?” I love
society’s code words! There are some things that are deemed so terrible, one
cannot articulate the nature of the awful deed. A woman who smokes will be identified
via mime…. someone will puff an
imaginary ciggie and whisper, “woh peeti hai…” Of course, such a woman can never become the
bahu of a ‘decent’ khandaan.Well you can keep your decent khandaan. Some of us
are unashamedly ‘indecent’. Hum log khaatey hain, peetey hain … we ‘take’. Kuch
problem?

In an age of ‘halkat jawaani’, it’s time to
abandon hypocrisy and embrace reality – shuddh, unshuddh, desi or not.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

I am putting myself in my mother’s chappals
right now. She raised three ambitious daughters and one equally ambitious son
in a city called Bombay. Let’s stick to the daughters for now. We went to
school and college using public transport. Later, when I joined the city’s
formidable female work force, I walked back from the office to my home a good
kilometer and a half away. Most times I
was alone, often, the hour was late, and I didn’t carry pepper spray in my
handbag. Nor did I practice Karate. Did I feel safe? Yes, I did. Did my mother
suffer daily anxiety attacks till I got home? No, she didn’t. And remember, we
are talking about pre-cell phone days. Let’s go back a few more years. As an
athlete through school and college, my training started at dawn. I would leave
home when it was still dark outside and walk half a kilometer to the maidan at
Dhobi Talao. Not once did I feel unsafe or scared as I rushed to my coaching
lessons through semi-deserted back lanes of Churchgate. Neither did my mother.

Same city.
Last week. Wait a minute. Did I state ‘Same city’ ? I guess that is the
essential difference. Mumbai is unequivocally NOT the same city anymore. It’s
not even Bombay! Something snapped somewhere and we are still trying to come to
terms with what that ‘something’ could be. Today, my daughters are a part of
the female work force here. And I am on tenterhooks till they get home every
evening. Which is why, I can totally empathise with the mother of the gangrape
survivor when she pleads with the media to leave her and her daughter alone. I
can only say how incredibly proud we feel to read her daughter’s courageous statement
- “ Rape is not the end of life…”
coupled with her desire to get back to work as soon as possible. That will
certainly reassure the countless women professionals in our city. But will it
make life any safer for them?

One of the reasons why rape is not looked
at as a ‘serious’ crime in our society is because women themselves are not
taken seriously. Our attitude to sex
itself is hopelessly warped, since we see it in isolation – we ‘have’ sex. Like
we ‘have’ daal-chaval. It is to satisfy hunger, not enjoy the meal. Our men
grow up believing women are created specifically to cater to their sexual urges. The thought that women have an equal amount of sovereignty over
their body, their desires, their emotions, does not occur to a vast majority of
men, raised as they are with an exaggerated sense of entitlement in a
patriarchal society.

Do
women in today’s India have the luxury of time ? Can we afford to wait
for that all important ‘mindset change’ ( how I loathe that cliché!). For how
long? Another fifty years? Hundred? Platitudes have piled up on more platitudes as we discuss gender
senstisation programmes for our children. And talk about real change starting
at home. Getting to the root of the problem…blah blah blah. But where is this
mysterious root?Shall we give it a name, please? Can anyone identify what the
real problem is? Even as we debate on this issue, a female is being violated
somewhere in our country. Regardless of
age or social status.There were one lakh pending rape cases in 2012. And we are
talking about reported assaults. One can multiply that number by 100, and it
will still be low.

There is a rape epidemic raging across
India. It has already claimed a record number of victims. The world sees us as
a seriously sick society, with sexual deviants attacking women every minute of
the day. And yet, our government has not woken up. Violence against women is
treated in the same casual way as violence against animals. Both are condemnable
and shameful. But so long as we continue to tolerate the presence of men facing
rape charges in Parliament , nothing is likely to change.Will we have the guts
to debar such criminals from contesting the next election? Do we have the will
to make gender equality our main election issue? If we don’t, we shall be
condemning ourselves to another century of escalating violence against our
women. And rape will be reduced to just another four letter word. As easily
thrown around as the other one that starts with an ‘F’….revolting, but
inescapable .God help the women of Bharat Mahan.

**************

This appeared in Sunday Times...

A tale of two Mumbais…

The survivor of the gangrape in Mumbai,
walked out of the hospital at midnight on Wednesday , face uncovered, and with
her head held high. That much we know. And our respect for her, only grew. We
also know she wasn’t crushed after
enduring the worst form of violence, when she declared, “Rape is not the end of
life….” In fact, she boldly stated her
intention to get back to work as soon as possible. And we applauded her
extraordinary courage. Not many survivors of such a vicious sexual attack would
have had the strength to take this position. Our girl is obviously made of
sterner stuff. She is someone with pricy platinum, not lowly steel in her
spine. And that’s what makes her an epic hero. Unfortunately, not every woman
has her formidable shakti. And that is the real tragedy we have to confront
today. For every such survivor, there are thousands of nameless/ faceless
others who remain silent…who take the horror and humiliation of rape to the
grave with them. But this survivor was different from the very start of her
trauma. Twice, when her anxious mother phoned to check on her, she managed to
calmly reassure mom that all was well. She had the presence of mind to keep panic out
of their voice while rapists armed with broken beer bottles towered over her.
Even after the ghastly assault, she kept
her cool , said nothing to her male colleague in the presence of the rapists,
and sensibly went to a hospital, before
approaching the cops. Had she not sought immediate medical help, and reported
the rape, not only would she have harmed her own recovery, but the sexual
predators would still be at large in search of new victims.

Getting back to work is perhaps the
strongest message sent out by the survivor. She is our very own Malala. She is
the never-say-die Mumbaikar. Hopefully,
the damaged spirits of Mumbai’s working women ( millions of them), will seek inspiration
from her decision to resume her normal life. Despite the best counseling, the
trauma of what she endured is inescapable, and it may take years for the scars
to heal. But heal they will. Because she is determined to erase them. The
city’s scars are likely to take longer to fade, and this is essentially the
problem which has no clear cut answers or solutions. Tougher laws and fast
track courts can take care of one aspect of the countless crimes against women.
But who can tell us why these crimes are on the rise? Why are women being
targeted? Why has India become a nation of women baiters and haters? When,
where and how will this rape epidemic end?

Unfortunately, Mumbai’s cops are a
demoralized lot right now, even though the rapists were nabbed in record time .The aftermath of the
crime that rocked Mumbai is interesting - finally, the city has woken up to its own
vulnerability, the fragility of its future… its survival… even, its imminent
death. People say there are many Mumbais
within Mumbai. I’d say there are precisely two – the super moneyed Mumbai and
the abjectly poor Mumbai. Both co-exist
uneasily, side by side. Soon , Mumbai will become another Sao Paolo, with vast
and violent inner cities that are out
of bound to ‘outsiders’. Lawlessness and
anarchy rule in several sensitive areas as it is. Already, there are hubs which discourage strangers
from entering or ‘snooping’. Even the cops stay away. There exists an immeasurable
socio-economic divide we are in complete denial about. We have blinkers on and
dare not identify the problem. We refuse to recognize the existence of these
two cities within a city. A case of two radically different mindsets. There is
Ratan Tata’s refined, posh Bombay. And there is R.R.Patil’s rough and rustic
Mumbai. These two polar opposites don’t speak to each other. They can’t ! They
have absolutely nothing in common. Yes, it’s a class war. Let’s stop pretending
it isn’t. Because we don’t know what to do about either version of Mumbai. It
is this disturbing phenomenon that is resulting in an escalation of crime…
especially crimes against women, since women remain society’s softest targets.
The gutsy survivor of the recent gangrape belonged to the ‘other’ Mumbai. She
was educated, confident, assertive and unafraid. Her rapists were jobless,
illiterate and desperately poor. She had a lot to lose. They had nothing. She
was a stake holder in the city. They weren’t. She had a future. They had none. She
was seen as the enemy – first strike against her being her gender. Second, her
social status. Both were effortlessly attacked during the assault.

In
such a grim scenario, is it any wonder that the real loser is Mumbai?

Sunday, September 1, 2013

This appeared in Mumbai Mirror yesterday.... and ruffled a lot of feathers. That was the general idea!

************

Mere Chhotey Bhai, Satyapal,

What have you done? After all that good and
efficient work of catching the Shakti Mills’ rapists in record time, you’ve gone
and ruined it all with your ulta-pulta remarks.
Now the city’s presswalla’s are after you. Everybody’s baying for your
blood. And ridiculing your outburst. Naturally!
How can you make statements like, “Today you want to legalise
prostitution, tomorrow you will want to legalise rape and murder ” ? These sort
of comments make you sound like an uneducated, medieval , feudal man, living in the 15th century
- or like your minister, R.R,Patil. Not
the dynamic, take charge 21st
century Police Commissioner of India’s premier city. Bro, I have figured
out the problem. The villain is not you. It is English. You have a problem with
Angrezi bhasha. And you have an even bigger problem with those who speak it.
Theek hai. We get it. English = Promiscuous = Rape = Suicide = Depravity = Guilt. Case closed. In the first week of
January you made this preposterous observation : “ A majority of those who
commit suicide are English-educated people.” So, according to you, millions of
Mumbaikars should be on a suicide watch?
Had this come from someone else, we would have laughed at the person and moved
on. But Satyapal Singh, you are in charge of our city! The women of Mumbai are
under your protection! Your men and women in the police force are supposed to
look after us. How can they do their jobs if the boss himself has such a low
opinion of women in general, and today’s
women in particular?

As a badi behen, I feel protective towards
you! The entire city is after you now. People are shocked, horrified and revolted by
your misogynistic, misplaced, mistimed comments, that too, at such a sensitive
time. The thing is, Mumbai’s Police Commissioners have always enjoyed a special
status - Top Cop of Mumbai! It’s the
most coveted position for a police person to hold in all of India. It comes
with power, glamour and responsibility.
Over the years, Mumbai’s high profile Commissioners have enjoyed not
just the confidence of the public at large, but have also been larger than life
figures who have inspired citizens and struck fear in the hearts of criminals.
They were our heroes. They excelled at their jobs. And that happened only because they
understood the pulse of the city. Understood its women. Accepted that Mumbai was indeed
unique. And went about their work with sensitivity and understanding , factoring in
the rapidly shifting socio-cultural
developments that define teeming metros globally. To talk about Raavan and Sita
to such a community is asking for trouble. You landed yourself in a mess with
that throwaway line in July this
year. Since then, it has been downhill all the way. Poor you.

We expect a lot from our Police
Commissioners. It’s true. And perhaps, a little unfair, as well. By the same
token, we empathise with what they are up against – an acute shortage of beat cops in a city that grows and grows by the micro second. You
don’t have enough support on the ground. We get it. Your people are over worked
and underpaid. We get that, too. Forget guns and bullet proof jackets. I doubt we have enough
lathis to go around! It is a daunting job.
The public understands your challenges on this level. But what nobody
understands is your attitude. Your mindset. You also said , “ Countries with
sex education in their curriculum have an increased number of crimes against
women!” Whaaaat?How could you! It gets
worse ( if that is possible!). You asked , “Should we allow couples to kiss in
public and indulge in obscenity?” You also added, “We have to strike a balance
as to what kind of a culture and society we want.” Correct! To that last
observation, Mumbaikars across the board
have an answer ( it is the same in Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English)
: Leave that to us. We can decide for
ourselves what we want. We are capable of figuring it out, without the cops. We’ll
do our bit. And you do yours. Which means, make Mumbai a safer city. Especially for
women. We agree not every woman is a Sita ( or even wants to be her). Just as
not every man is a Raavan. We just want to be us – Mumbaikars. Jhakaas people.

Go on… go for it. Learn the lingo of the streets…
the lingo of our hearts. It’s not all that tough. And we’ll back you all the
way. Kyon? Are you game?Abhi bhi chance hai.